Dispensing device



Feb. 24, 1953 J, A. VALENTINE DISPENSING DEVICE Filed June 5, 1946 INVENTOR. JEESE /LWLENT/NE n @g /ydffxr ATTORNEY Patented Feb. 24, 195,3

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,629,614 msPENsING DEVICE Jesse A. valenti, Damit, Linien.

Airplicatiun June 5, 1946, serial No. 674,485 1 claim. (ci. 264-15) This invention generally relates to liquid dispensing apparatus for barrels and particularly pertains to a new, useful, and inventive .beerbarrel tap, a portion of which is permanently fixed within the barrel and a portion of which is detachably afxed to the exterior of the barrel when it is desirable to tap the barrel.

An Object of the invention is to equip a barrel with a permanent internal fixture which is adapted to cooperate with an external fixture to open the barrel .for dispensing the liquid contained therein and to close the barrel for sending the barrel back to the brewery for refilling.

An object is to provide an external xture that cooperates with the barrel internal fixture and which attaches itself to the barrel via the internal fixture and acts as means for opening the barrel and dispensing the liquid when it is attached to the barrel.

Another object Yis to provide a barrel tapping means that closes the Ibarrel when the external fixture is removed from the barrel.

A further object is to provide a barrel tapping means that is permanently aixed to the barrel that is engineered so that it can be made with a minimum of machinery and which comprises few parts that are easy to clean before the barrel is rlilled.

A further object is to provide a rubber gromet or flexible member on the end of the feed tube at the bottom of 'the barrel which is press fitted against the bottom of the barrel and which absorbs any dierences in barrel dimension from top to bottom and which is adapted to get the last drop of liquid from the barrel as the intake orices are at the very bottom of the barrel.

Various other objects and advantages will be apparent from the following description and the attached drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a side elevational view of the invention showing the barrel xture permanently affixed thereto with the external tap fixture detachably connected;

Fig. 2 is a somewhat enlarged longitudinal cross sectional View of a portion of Fig. 1 showing the bayonet slot connecting means and the liquid and air chambers with their connecting orifices;

Fig. 3 is a cross sectional view of Fig. 2 taken on the line 3--3 thereof showing the bayonet slot attaching means;

Fig. 4 is a similar View of Fig. 2 showing the diamond headed nut which operates the disc type valve in opening and closing the barrel;

Fig. 5 is a similar view to Figs. 3 and 4 showing the orifices of the moving disc of the valve Figure 6 is a cross sectional, view of Figure 2 taken on 'the line 6 I 'thereof showing the upper oriii'ces.; and

Figure 7 is a cross sectionalview of Figure 2 taken on the line I"-`I thereof showing the lower orifices. l

Referring to the drawings, the barrel portion I0 of ythe invention, Figs. 1 and'2, is secured to the `top II of the barrel by'ring nut I2 which holds rflange I4 of theinvention against ange I5 of the barrel thereby-sealing the peripheralopening. At the other end of the invention I and adjacent the bottom I6 of the barrel is rubber gromet or exible member Il which has internal core I8 for receiving and retaining the outwardly iianged end I9 of tu-be 20; `Also formed in the member I'I are orifices 2l which allow the beer or other liquid in the barrel to enter the tube 20. The member II is press tted against the bottom of the barrel v'and as it is iiexible, it absorbs any differences in a barrels dimension from top to bottom and it also presses its orices 2| against the bottom oi the barrel 4so' that the vintake oriiices are at the very bottomof the :barrel which enables the last drop of Aliquid-to be drawn therefrom.

The dispensngportioni, Figs.l `2 and y3, ofthe invention', has a beller enlarged part ZSFadjacent its center equipped with lug 27 and lug ZSadapted to -operate in bayonet slots 29 and 30 respectively in the flange I4 of the barrel part I0, which connects the barrel member IU and the tap member 25 together. The slots 29 and 30 and the lugs 2l and 28 are so arranged that the dispensing portion I0 can be put on backwards as lug 28 is the same as lug 21 and the slots are so arranged that a quarter turn connects the two parts regardless of how the members are connected.

Referring now to the internal construction of the invention, the barrel portion ID, Figures 2, 4, 5, 6 and 7, has air or gas intake chamber 3l surrounding beer or liquid outlet chamber v32. Air chamber 3I communicates with the interior of the barrel via arcuate orices 33a in the base of the upper member 5I) of barrel portion Hl, arcuate orices 33 of disc-type valve 35, and arcuate ori ces 33h in the head of lower member 5I of barrel portion ID. Liquid outlet chamber 32 communicates with the interior of the barrel via arcuate orifices 34a in the base of the upper member 50 of barrel portion I0, arcuate orices 3ft of disc-type valve 35 and arcuate orifices 34h. Disc type valve 35 operated by diamond headed nut 36 to which it is keyed may be rotated a quarter turn. In so doing arcuate orifices 33 no longer register with arcuate orices 33a and 33h. In like manner ar- 3 cuate orifices 34 no longer register with arcuate orices 34a and 34h. This closes the communication between the interior of the barrel and the air and liquid chambers 3| and 32.

The tap portion 25 has air or gas chamber 31 surrounding liquid chamber 38 which chambers communicate with the air and liquid chambers 3| and 32 of the barrel portion l0 via apertures 39 and 40 respectively. Gaskets 4| and 42 seal 01T the chambers from each other. The liquid chamber 38 is equipped with a valve 43 for turning the iiow of the liquid on and 01T while the air chamber 31 is connected via pipe 44 to air intake nozzle 45 and valve 50. The tap portion 25 is also equipped with socket end 43 which is adapted to t the diamond headed nut 36 for operating the disc type valve 35.

In operation, the barrel is filled with liquid and the valve 35 is in the off position. In the 01T position disc type valve 35 is so adjusted in its angular position that orifices 33 and 34 are out of register with oriiices 33a, 3319 and 34a, 34h respectively. The tap portion 25 is then inserted within the ring nut |2 into the barrel portion |0 with the socket 4B fitting the diamond nut 36 and the lugs 21 and 28 positioned in the slots 29 and 30 respectively. The tap portion 25 is then given a quarter turn which seats the lugs and connects the portions I and 25. The rotation of diamond nut 36 also causes the disc type valve 35 to rotate a quarter turn. This brings orifices 33 in register with 33a and 33h. It also registers orifices 34 with 34a and 34h.

Air cr gas pressure can now be fed into the barrel via nozzle 45, valve 50, tube 44, chamber 31, orifices 39, chamber 3|, oriiices 33a, orices 33 and orifices 33h.

Liquid can be drawn out of the barrel via apertures 2| in gromet tube 20, orifices 34h, orices 34, orices 34a, chamber 32, orifices 40 and chamber 38 by placing the valve in the open position.

After the liquid has been drawn from the barrel, the tap member 25 is removed from the barrel member I0 by a reverse quarter twist which closes the valve 35 thereby sealing the barrel from dirt, and foreign matter until it is returned to the brewery.

It can now be seen that the permanent barrel fixture and the detachable tap fixture can be easily cleaned at the brewery as there are no complex turns in the xture and no pockets that would trap a quantity of beer and so sour the barrel. It can also be seen that the fixtures are engineered so that they can be easily manufactured.

Various adaptations, substitutions, omissions, and additions can be made to the invention without departing from the spirit thereof as the invention is limited only by the scope of the appended claim.

I claim:

A barrel, a tap receiving fixture carried by said barrel, said iixture having an air chamber terminating in a set of arcuate oriiices, a liquid chamber coaxial with said air chamber terminating in a set of arcuate oriiices and a disc valve having a iirst set of arcuate orifices registerable with said air chamber orifices and a second set of arcuate orices registerable with said liquid chamber orifices, a tap iixture having an air chamber and a liquid chamber for communicating with said air and liquid chambers in said tap receiving fixture, means carried by said tap fixture for adjusting the angular position of said disc valve whereby the register of said orifices is altered.

JESSE A. VALENTINE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 602,510 Knapp Apr. 19, 1898 614,465 Haberman Nov. 22, 1898 842,343 Schilling et al Jan. 29, 1907 850,070 Spikes Apr. 9, 1907 911,225 Flach et al Feb. 2, 1909 1,021,669 Frisholm Mar. 26, 1912 2,174,354 Shields Sept. 26, 1939 2,223,012 Wanderski et al. Nov. 26, 1940 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 103,116 Germany May 12, 1899 

